Monday, November 30, 2015

Dec 19 - Christmas bird count - 8am - 4pm. Audubon's Christmas Bird Count, which attempts to count all birds within a 15-mile-diameter circle, has been conducted for more than 100 years. People who want to get involved in Morgantown's count may register online, at birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count. Several teams will cover various areas. Attendees can bird all day long, or only part of the day.

The 2016 State Master Naturalist Meeting is being held at North Bend State Park. Dates are June 9-12 with Friday being pre-conference activities including biking, kayaking, historical tour of Blennerhasset Island, and a self-guided tour of Harrisville. You may now make your reservations for rooms in the Lodge or to rent a cabin. The number to call is 304-643-2931or go to their website.

For those wanting to rent a campsite, you will need to wait until after Feb 15.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, and
from torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom
relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter.
Unlike their human counterparts, who must alter the environment to
accommodate physical limitations, animals are adaptable to an amazing
range of conditions.
Examining everything from food sources in the
extremely barren winter land-scape to the chemical composition that
allows certain creatures to survive, Heinrich's Winter World awakens the
largely undiscovered mysteries by which nature sustains herself through
winter's harsh, cruel exigencies.

January 14 Life on the Edge by Johnjoe Mcfadden and Jim Al- Khalili
Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how
did it come to be? Even in an age of cloning and artificial biology,
the remarkable truth remains: nobody has ever made anything living
entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life.
Are we still missing a vital ingredient in its creation?

Like Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, which provided a new perspective on how evolution works, Life on the Edge
alters our understanding of our world's fundamental dynamics. Bringing
together first-hand experience at the cutting edge of science with
unparalleled gifts of explanation, Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe Macfadden
reveal that missing ingredient to be quantum mechanics; the phenomena
that lie at the heart of this most mysterious of sciences.

Drawing on recent ground-breaking experiments around the world, each chapter in Life on the Edge
engages by illustrating one of life's puzzles: How do migrating birds
know where to go? How do we really smell the scent of a rose? How do our
genes copy themselves with such precision? Life on the Edge accessibly reveals how quantum mechanics can answer these probing questions of the universe.

Guiding
the reader through the rapidly unfolding discoveries of the last few
years, Al-Khalili and McFadden communicate the excitement of the
explosive new field of quantum biology and its potentially revolutionary
applications, while offering insights into the biggest puzzle of all:
what is life? As they brilliantly demonstrate in these groundbreaking
pages, life exists on the quantum edge.

February 11 Dirt the Ecstatic Skin of Earth by William Logan
“You are about to read a lot about dirt, which no one knows very much
about.” So begins the cult classic that brings mystery and magic to
“that stuff that won’t come off your collar.”

John Adams, Thomas
Jefferson, Saint Phocas, Darwin, and Virgil parade through this
thought-provoking work, taking their place next to the dung beetle, the
compost heap, dowsing, historical farming, and the microscopic biota
that till the soil. With fresh eyes and heartfelt reverence, William
Bryant Logan variously observes, “There is glamour to the study of
rock”; “The most mysterious place on Earth is right beneath our feet”;
and “Dirt is the gift of each to all.”

Whether Logan is
traversing the far reaches of the cosmos or plowing through our
planet’s crust, his delightful, elegant, and surprisingly soulful
meditations greatly enrich our concept of “dirt,” that substance from
which we all arise and to which we all must return.

March 10 Wilderness World of John Muir by John Muir edited by Edwin Teale
As a conservationist, John Muir traveled through most of the American
wilderness alone and on foot, without a gun or a sleeping bag. In 1903,
while on a three-day camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt, he
convinced the president of the importance of a national conservation
program, and he is widely recognized for saving the Grand Canyon and
Arizona's Petrified Forest. Muir's writing, based on journals he kept
throughout his life, gives our generation a picture of an America still
wild and unsettled only one hundred years ago. In The Wildernesss Worldof John Muir Edwin Way Teale has selected the best of Muir's writing from all of his major works—including My First Summer in the Sierra and Travels in Alaska—to provide a singular collection that provides to be "magnificent, thrilling, exciting, breathtaking, and awe-inspiring" (Kirkus Reviews).

The Master Naturalist Book Club will be meeting at 6:30
this year in the same place…..Ag Science building on WVU Evansdale
Campus Room G138. Parking is out front and there is a microwave
available if anyone would need one.
Remember the change in time….6:30on Thursday evenings

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

This coming weekend will feature 13 hours of community service opportunities for interested volunteers at the State Forest with the Coopers Rock Foundation. Saturday's hours will be from 9am-5pm and Sunday's are noon-5pm. There will be free Halloween candy for all volunteers.
Trails to be worked upon may include: Roadside Trail, Advanced Ski Trail, Rock City Trail, and the brand new Reservoir Loop Trail.
The meeting place for each day will be at the entrance to the day use parking lot, 1/4 mile from the I-68 Coopers Rock exit.
Info: adamzapple88@gmail.com

Contributors

Please note:

If planning on taking a class at a chapter other than your own, please email/call the contact person listed first to find out if the class is still scheduled, where it is, if they have room for you, and if there is any cost involved. Check also with your own chapter coordinator to see what paperwork you will need in order to get credit for the class.

To see the latest schedules from the other chapters, go to the Master Naturalist website: MNofWV.org